This is the third in a series of four blogs that provide a glimpse of itelligence’s book Business Heroes (Second Edition) that was released last week. For more background, please see this post

I opened the door and skeptically looked up the stairs. A smell of dust and cleaning powder was the first thing that hit me as I began to run.

Floors one and two were easy. Running up one or two sets of stairs is normal for me. I was more or less on my own and only heard other people from a distance.

Between the third and fourth floors, the ambience of the house became boring. Recurring images make you lose a certain level of orientation. There were no logos or images. Just grey walls and more stairs. Had I already passed the landing on the fourth floor? Maybe I should take a break? My breathing had become shorter, and there was a long way to go.

Floor number five…would I have more energy if I didn’t smoke? My legs told me I needed to do more sports!

Floor nine. It was better climbing the stairs continuously. Stopping and starting gave me a hard time. Should that be a message for my life?

Whenever I tried hard to achieve something, the extraordinary effort took away a lot of energy. People around me in the square tried to get more information and constantly checked their mobile devices. Some of them received TV signals and showed us what had happened in the center of the earthquake. Of course it was not yet the whole truth. They had just realized that Japanese had experienced an unprecedented natural disaster. My own mobile phone from Shanghai didn’t work …

That was Friday, March 11, 2011, a day Japan will remember forever. It was a day that will always have deep meaning for me as well.

You can also find the second edition of “Business Heroes in SMBs – Worldwide” on Amazon